Overview and tour of the Tom Johnson House, Beggar's Bush, Dublin which recently underwent the largest energy-saving retrofit in the Republic of Ireland. This energy-efficient office is now the Irish Government's Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications headquarters, responsible for the telecommunications and broadcasting sectors and one that regulates, protects, and develops Ireland's natural resources.

Historic Building Refurbishment

The refurbishment retained the existing 1970s structure, taking advantage of the energy already embedded in the concrete structure and brick external façade.

By retaining and upgrading these resources rather than demolishing and rebuilding, the works will have significantly less impact on the carbon footprint of the building. The original building constructed in c. 1975, would have had a ‘G’ BER rating. The refurbishment of Tom Johnson House has resulted in an ‘A2’ BER, representing a c. 85% reduction in primary energy use and will greatly extend the building’s useful life.

A major facet of the project is that the existing State-owned building will not be demolished and replaced, instead, the design encompassed the re-use of the existing concrete structural frame, concrete floors, circulation cores/stairs, and external walls/external brickwork facades.

The embedded carbon in the building’s existing structures will considerably mitigate the climate change impact of the investment when compared with any new-build option. The use of heat pump technology and the application of the OPW’s Green Procurement Policy also worked to mitigate the climate change impact of the project. The Tom Johnson House is now as an exemplar project in the transformation of existing buildings for future use.

Technology Used

For the Tom Johnson House project the following systems were installed:

• Multifunction Chiller Heat Pumps – We removed the existing fossil fuel boilers and replaced them with heat pump systems providing heating and cooling to the building
• Automated Façade Providing Natural Ventilation
• Roof Mounted Solar PV Array System
• BIM LOD 400 Model for the M&E Design

Agenda:

10am Registration – Auditorium of Tom Johnson House

10.30am – Overview IAM Ireland

11am Tour (including short presentation from the OPW)

12.30am – Q&A in the Auditorium

1pm Lunch & Networking (location TBC)